


we'll take it slow

by thir13enth



Category: Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-03-14
Packaged: 2019-03-13 19:52:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13577796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thir13enth/pseuds/thir13enth
Summary: There’s a lot of benefits that come with Rafael’s new apartment: a better school district, less of Rafael’s clutter around the Villanueva house, and of course, more time alone for just the two of them.— jafael. drabbles, post s4e9.





	1. timing is everything

Jane is always on time — and that never changed whether she was the one attending class or not:

“Come on, Mateo! We can’t be late!” she encourages him, straightening out his backpack as he struggles to keep up with her.

“We’re not gonna be late! The bell hasn’t rung yet!” he groans, nevertheless tredding alongside her. Jane notices a smudge of something — probably breakfast — at the corner of his mouth and she quickly takes a napkin from her pocket to wipe his mouth before ushering him into the classroom.

“Okay, bye, Mateo!” she tells him. She hides her excited grin as best as she can with an even wider smile to wish her son the best Monday morning at school. She gives him a short wave as the door to the classroom closes and then waits a full two seconds before quickly rushing off to her car.

She struggles to get the car keys in the right direction, fumbles with the brake pedal, and almost runs over an orange safety cone on her way out of the school’s temporary parking lot, but eventually she pulls into street parking a block away from Rafael’s apartment and starts a quick pace.

 _In front of your door!!!!_ , she texts as she makes her way up to the stairs to the fourth floor.

And in just perfect timing, as she steps onto his welcome mat, his door swings open and he reaches for her with both hands, pulling her in for a kiss as she kicks the door shut behind her.

In between kisses, he checks his watch. “Eight minutes and forty-seven seconds,” he reports, whispering over her lips.

“Mmm. Record time,” she hums, before closing the distance again.


	2. escape route

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> in the case of an emergency, don't take the elevator.

Jane never did appreciate the extra real estate value of the art deco windows and fire escape included in Rafael’s new apartment until testing out the utility of both herself.

A sudden knock on Rafael’s door interrupts them in the middle of a long and passionate kiss that somehow ended up with them shirtless on his bed, one button on Jane’s pants loosened.

She furrows her eyes, pointing toward the door. _Who is that?_

He widens his eyes and looks to it, eyebrows furrowed. Clearly not expecting this.

“Rafael?” the voice outside his door calls — and their jaws drop when they recognize Xiomara.

Frantically, they flip out of bed. Jane finds her shirt somewhere in the middle of the bedsheets and buttons back her pants while Rafael smooths over the covers. He plucks a long brown hair off the pillowcase.

“Xo?” he calls out, reaching down to pick up his shirt from the floor and pulling it over himself.

Jane lifts both hands up at Rafael. _Why is my mom at your door in the middle of the night?_

Rafael gives her a panicked expression and shrugs. _No clue._

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m sorry this is very sudden and last minute and it’s late, but I’m trying to do something for Ro and I need some help.” Xiomara explains, behind the door. “Well, also the drive to your apartment is closer than going to Jane and my mom, and I don’t need their fussing right now.”

“Oh, no, that’s absolutely okay!” Rafael replies, hurriedly fluffing the pillows on his bed. “I’ll be right there.” He gives Jane a confused look. _You know what’s going on?_

 _No idea_. Jane returns a shrug. _But apparently my mom doesn’t want my input anyway._

 _Whatever. We’ll figure it out._ He points to his closet, urging her to get in there as quickly as possible.

Without another second lost, Jane rushes over to the other side of the room, opening the door to the closet.

But alas, as it was the case in a small apartment, there was not much room in that closet — even for someone as small as Jane — and so she looks back at Rafael, who is already halfway to the front entrance of his apartment, gesturing that no, there was no way she could fit inside of his closet.

Wildly, they both look around, searching for a solution, and that’s when it hits them:

The fire escape.

Turning to each other at the same time, he points to the fire escape just outside his window and she nods without hesitation, starting to make her way there.

But then she trips on a helmet that’s in the way (for god knows what reason) and she comes down, holding in the anguish of her stubbed toe.

“Raf? Is everything okay in there?” Xo asks, knocking twice again. “I heard some noise.”

Rafael quickly comes forward to scoop Jane up, but she waves him off, coming up to her feet on her own and waving him with her head. _It’s fine, it’s fine,_ she mouths.

“Uh, everything’s fine!” Rafael said. “I was just in the middle of cleaning.”

He hops over to the window and opens it, letting a gust of hot and humid Miami air into the apartment. Jane quickly ties her hair up and then lifts herself up and out of the window, while Rafael holds his arms out behind her. She grabs the metal bars, stepping onto the fire escape platform, which makes deep vibrating hum as her weight transfers onto it.

Once completely up and out, she sits herself against the outside wall of the building, tucking herself out of sight from the window. Folding one leg over the other, she places her hands in her lap and makes herself comfortable, ready for however long this was going to take.

She turns back to Rafael and gives him a declarative nod that she was all set.

He silently begs for her forgiveness, giving her an emphatic frown. She rolls her eyes and then finally leans to the side to give him a kiss before he pulls down the window and runs off to attend to Xiomara.

She sighs with a great huff. Well, at least now they knew what to do in case of an emergency.  


	3. the perfect recipe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> love doesn't need many ingredients.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a request from tumblr that I just saw in my drafts and realized I never posted! 
> 
> (also technically I wrote this before s4e11 so this is all before they decided to come out to the family about their relationship, haha, forgive my ill timing but I do want to write about their clandestine romance for an instant.)

It was practically perfect timing.

The day after Jane and Rafael told Mateo they were going to remain ‘just friends,’ the very next day, Mateo insisted on going to one of his classmate’s sleepover parties, even preparing three reasonable supporting statements to why it was important for him to do so.

Of course, as proud as Jane was to see that Mateo had adopted her penchant for forming lists of convincing arguments, no persuading was needed at all. Jane was more than ready to let her son have a night of fun with his friends so that she could have a night of fun with her ‘friend.’

A win-win situation. All Jane had to do then was slip out of her house with an excuse to do some writing at a nearby coffee shop and then Rafael and Jane could have a sort of sleepover of their own.

She drives to his apartment — thank god for him having a place to himself — and hurries herself up the stairs to his apartment, before knocking on his door. He opens immediately, and as the door opens, she gets a whiff of the buttery and caramelized smell of what could only be…

“Grilled cheese?” she asks, confused.

“Yes,” he replies with a growing smile, leading her into his apartment. “Just like the way you taught me to make it: one-third white cheddar, one-third yellow cheddar, and one-third grated American cheese.”

“Oh,” she says, touched to the heart, and can’t resist but pull him in for a quick kiss before she pokes him in the nose. “But that’s cheap. You know that I’m going to like the grilled cheese no matter what. What ever happened to your supposedly amazing cooking?”

He returns a cheeky grin. “Since we were going to give this all another try, I thought it would be nice to come back to the very first meal that we shared,” he explains. She gives him a disbelieving look, and he revises, “And you can experience my cooking… all you have to do is promise me another date!”

She rolls her eyes, placing her purse down on the kitchen counter.

“Besides, I can’t scare you off too quickly!” he adds. “We’re taking it slow, aren’t we?”

Jane snorts, swiveling around with an arched eyebrow. “Slow is _not_ what happened on our first date,” she clarifies. “You hadn’t even finished your sandwich before we reached to first base.”

He flips the sandwich in the pan and then wags the spatula at her. “Okay but just now, I haven’t finished _making_ the sandwich and you’ve already kissed me.”

“It’s _different_ now!” she retorts, laughing. She glances around at his apartment, eyes quickly moving over the bed — reminding herself that not only did the two of them had that bed to themselves that night, but also that many things that could be done on said bed. “And we don’t have to go _that_ slow, right?” she asks, her eyebrow arching at him.

He looks up at her, before dropping a sandwich from the pan onto a plate. She can tell he knows what she’s saying behind the lines because he glances quickly behind him at his bed. When he catches her watching him, he scolds her.

“Hey. Dinner before dessert,” he warns her.

“Well, then _let’s get to it already_ ,” she teases, jabbing him in the ribs.

Despite Jane’s incessant poking and her unfortunate awareness of all his most ticklish spots, Rafael completes their humble meal of grilled cheese sandwiches with a generous glass of beer for the both of them — a stout from Jane’s favorite local Wynwood brewery.

“Cheers,” she says, and with that, they clink their sandwiches together and get to starting the first course of their night together.

He waits for Jane to get the first bite.

“So?” he asks her. “How is it?”

“Eh,” she says, in a fake critic voice. “Acceptable.”

“Well, I wouldn’t expect to do better than the very best,” he replies.

She gloats visibly. “Oh, you flatter me.”

His eyes light up suddenly. “You just reminded me,” he remarks, pulling out his phone and flipping through it with his free hand. “I wanted to show you that picture that was taken of us in the park over this past weekend. It’s so cute. I’m printing it and getting it framed.”

“No way, let me see!” she exclaims, peering over his phone.

He flips the phone in her direction and puts it down flat on the table so both of them could look at it together, which they do for a full two minutes with plenty of cooing and babbling about every aspect of the photo.

“What a perfect family, huh,” he remarks, taking another bite of his sandwich.

“Yeah,” she sighs.

“One-third Mateo,” he says, pointing to their boy in between them. “One-third Jane,” he continues, sliding his finger to Jane. “And one-third me?” he asks, turning to her with a wide smile. “It’s like the perfect sandwich.”

Would it be too punny to say Rafael’s simile is unapologetically cheesy?

“Eh,” she says, shrugging nonchalantly with a wrinkle of her nose. “Acceptable.”

But she can’t hold back her grin for too long, and when her lips break into a smile, he leans in to meet his lips to it.

**Author's Note:**

> follow along on tumblr @jtvdrabbles


End file.
